John Harbaugh press conference: 9-22-05

Site Staff

09/22/2005

On how K David Akers looks and what he anticipates for this Sunday:
"I thought he looked really good on field goals yesterday. So I think he can kick field goals for us right now, if we need him to. It's just a matter of checking him out on kickoffs for the next two days and seeing how that goes."

On whether he might hold David out to prevent further injury:

"Well there will be some consideration there, but there is more to it then
just that. We've got roster considerations. So if you make that decision, two
things are going to have to happen. You're going to have to make a change on
your 53-man roster, and you're going to have to make a change to your 45-man
roster. So I think you balance out the situation in terms of can he hurt himself
any worse, is there any danger in this thing lingering, versus the roster choice
that you might have to make, which might cost your team something."

On whether the plan might be to let David kick field goals and have
someone else do the kickoffs:

" That's not our plan right now, because if we did that we'd have to, again,
knock a guy off the 53-man roster, and knock a guy off the 45-man. We don't have
anybody on the roster that can kickoff better than Dave could kickoff. Its like
we did in the game Sunday. [TE/LS Mike Bartrum] kicked off the one kickoff and I
think it was about a 3.0 down to the 20-yard line. Dave kicked off the next
three with the injury, and actually kicked off better than Bartrum. So even if
Dave's kickoffs weren't up to standard for an NFL kicker, with the injury, they
were still better than Bartrum. Bartrum did a nice job, but he's not a kicker."

"No. Dirk kind of came up a different way as a kicker. Dirk was a safety who
learned how to punt. A lot of those guys are kickers who kicked balls their
whole life so he's not really a kicker. I think it's something we may want to
work on in the future, but with the groin injury we have not been able to work
on it."

On how K Todd France looked:

"Todd? He looked good. He kicked and made all of his field goals, and kicked
off very well. He looks like a guy that's right on the brink of being a kicker
in this league."

On what he saw in Todd that made him stand out:

"Well we've known about him since he came out of Toledo. He was a promising
guy coming out so he's one of these guys that we tracked all the way
through. [Director of Pro Personnel] Scott [Cohen] is the one who does a great
job tracking those goes. He's the next best guy out there, we felt like. Of all
the guys that were unsigned, he was the next best guy. We worked him out along
with the young guy from Boise, Tyler Jones, and he was just better in the
workout. So we think he's the next guy in line."

On why it is so hard for kickers to break out:

"Well I think part of it is the fact that there's only 32 of them. There's
only 32 spots, and there's no backups. There's three quarterbacks on a roster,
five corners on a roster, there's one kicker on every roster, and there's one
punter. So that's part of it plus, there's the consistency part of it. These
young guys are kind of raw. A lot of times they are not consistent. You want a
guy with more consistency. It's like a golfer. How many golfers win the PGA
tournament as 21-year old rookies? It takes time to develop those kind of
skills. It's more of that type of skill than running and tackling."

"Their returner, Chris Carr. He's really good for a rookie coming out of
Boise. Quintin Mikell warned us about him. He's really quick, really fast, and
he's not shy. He hits it up in there north south. He's already had a big return
so it's going to be a big challenge for us."

"He's been great. Mark is like [LB Jermiah Trotter] was last year. He's a
team player, and he likes to play football. He's a good football player. You saw
it in that big hit, and it's kind of the same thing we had with Jeremiah in that
sense. It's good to have good players on special teams, and Mark has been into
it."

On why the return games has not been so good:

"Well the biggest thing is it's early. We're going to be fine. We haven't had
many kick-off returns, so I think the jury's out there. But the blocking was not
very good the first week. Last week I don't know what to say. We only had one
chance. In the punt returns, we had two good returns called back on holding
calls. So whether they were legitimate holding calls or not, that's for the
officials to determine. I think we're blocking people pretty well on the punt
returns, and we'll have big punt returns. [CB] Dexter [Wynn] is doing a good
job, and so is [CB] Rod [Hood]."

On if he is happy with both Dexter and Rod:

"Oh absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind that those guys are going to have
good years, without question."

On whether David may re-injure himself and throw himself off:

"That's a good question. I don't know the answer to that. I don't think
so. Fundamentally, yesterday, we watched the tape. That's all you can really
do. We watched the tape. His mechanics were excellent. Just like they always are
when he's healthy. I think he's got a little pain in there, but he's still got
good mechanics. So, what more can you go by than that?"

On his anticipation of David's return:

‘I think if he kicks off well today then we anticipate him kicking on
Sunday. We don't know, because we haven't seen him kickoff yet."